Emerging German-Language Novelists of the Twenty-First Century (review)

As scholars and readers of contemporary German literature are acutely aware, a large new crop of writers and engaging texts appears yearly, yet relatively little scholarly literature has been dedicated to this emerging generation. This volume fills that gap, presenting an in-depth analysis of recently emerging authors, whose notoriety ranges from German Book Prize winner Julia Franck and bestselling author Daniel Kehlmann to writers who are less widely known outside of Germany. In her introduction to the volume, Lyn Marven explains that these “emerging writers” are those who have experienced “a rise to prominence” (2) in the last decade. Contributors to the volume examine both well-known texts such as Kehlmann’s Die Vermessung der Welt (2005) and newer works by authors such as Yadé Kara and Sven Regener, whose first novels received wide acclaim. The editors’ goal is to introduce these lesser-known authors and works to an international audience. And though many of the texts discussed have been translated into English, the volume also includes two translations: a chapter from Clemens Meyer’s Als wir träumten (Katy Derbyshire) and Vladimir Vertlib’s Das besondere Gedächtnis der Rosa Masur (Jamie Lee Searle).

Each of the individual chapters focuses solely on one text by one author, with the overall goal of introducing new readers to that author. The texts are discussed within the context of the author’s writing as a whole, and are also presented within wider literary and theoretical trends. Presented in chronological order, the chapters provide a neat snapshot of a decade’s worth of literary productivity in Germany. Several common themes emerge, including immigration, integration, multiculturalism, and transnational societies. These themes are embodied in both the characters in the texts and the lives of their authors, many of whom hail from countries and cultures other than Germany.

The individual chapters are thoroughly researched and well argued. Stuart Taberner’s chapter on Vladimir Vertlib’s Das besondere Gedächtnis der Rosa Masur presents a nuanced reading of the perceptions of Jewishness today within the context of broader discussions of integration and transnationalism. Writers such as Terézia Mora number among a growing cadre of authors from Eastern and Central Europe writing in German, who, as Anke S. Biendarra argues, add to the complexity of transnational contexts in contemporary German literature. Biendarra writes of “postnational literature” (48) as a response to the fluidity of borders and cultures. Emily Jeremiah examines Germanness and globalization in Sibylle Berg’s Die Fahrt, concluding that the novel demonstrates that “the global and the national are intertwined” (135), thus arguing for the “glocal.” She posits that literature can serve to blur national and cultural differences, and also simultaneously portray the global as something closer to home. In her chapter on Kehlmann’s Die Vermessung der Welt, Rebecca Braun reads the novel within the context of celebrity. She attributes the novel’s success to the fact that it appeals to both intellectuals and “nonprofessional” readers (86), precisely because it engages with celebrity as both social and literary phenomenon.

In the introduction, Marven acknowledges that the volume “hopes . . . to win new readers for some of the most exciting and innovative voices in German-language literature in the twenty-first century” (15). This volume succeeds in achieving this goal. I recommend it for graduate students and scholars interested in twenty-first-century literature, and it should be at the top of the acquisitions list for research libraries.